


Happy Beginnings

by ElementKitsune



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Accidental Pidge Shenanigans, Domestic Fluff, F/M, First Date, Fluff, Pidge really liked Disney as a kid, Wedding scene at the end, sort of Disney inspired
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-16
Updated: 2018-03-16
Packaged: 2019-04-01 08:13:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,098
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13994187
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElementKitsune/pseuds/ElementKitsune
Summary: Pidge doesn't expect her Wednesday afternoon to go as well as it did. But, despite accidentally spilling coffee on Probable Disney Prince Takashi Shirogane as a way to get an even more accidental date, it goes pretty damn well.





	Happy Beginnings

**Author's Note:**

> For @cupahntae for the shidge exchange. Hope you like it!

When Pidge had been… honestly  _ really _ young, Matt had introduced her to the wonders of Disney. This had been during the  _ girly things are yuck _ phase though, so he had first directed her towards films like  _ Robin Hood _ and  _ Sinbad and the Seven Seas _ , where there was a bit of yuck but it was mostly actiony and strategy.

(her favourite scene from Robin Hood will always be the one where Robin sneaks into the castle and takes all the gold from Prince John as he’s sleeping, and the clever escape where he survives by jumping into the lake and breathing through a reed)

From there, when she had been sufficiently plied and maybe a little more expectant of watching a new Disney movie per day because  _ c’mon Matt you said there were  _ **_thousands_ ** _ of them, _ Matt had introduced the yuck movies.

And the problem for tiny Pidge at the time was that she had been  _ sure _ that the yuckiness would have been too much, but in scenes where Beast saved Belle because he loved her and Milo and Kida had happy  _ they’re together _ moments, Pidge had found to her distress that  _ oh no! _ ...she actually liked the yuck and maybe wanted someone to be yuck with one day.

Except that day would be when she was old and had a pretty voice that would maybe be pretty enough to bring robots to life instead of animals coming around, because Gus Gus and all the other animals were  _ cool, _ yes, but.

Pidge liked robots. Pidge had always been and always will be a robot girl.

(sidenote: this, of course, made her delighted when Big Hero 6 came out because HER TIME HAD COME)

(aka the  _ robots _ had come)

However, this, Pidge reflects, is not what’s causing the immense awkwardness of this incident with the man with a scar on his face at the moment. (at least, it isn’t the sole cause. It’s a bit of an addon though)

No, what had contributed to make this situation significantly more awkward than spilling your slushie on a person with a very nice business suit tended to be was what came  _ after _ the Disney initiation.

That is, after Matt and Pidge had successfully spent their summer watching Disney movies and rewatching their favourites, Matt had managed to successfully make a friend on his first day of school.

Takashi Shirogane.

Takashi Shirogane who had honestly looked a little bit like a prince, and when he came over, he sang like one too, to the point that Pidge had stood up on chubby toddler legs, toddled over, and declared in front of Shiro and her entire family that he should be her Disney Prince.

Which had prompted Two (2) Cackles of Laughter (from Mom and Dad), One (1) Horrified Look (from Matt, because his tiny baby sister was hitting on his new Best Friend), and One (1) Confused Blink and Sparkly Smile. (from Shiro, who had taken it with remarkably good grace now that Pidge thinks back on it)

So, that had happened, and when Pidge had  _ finally _ “outgrown” her Disney phase (if you read outgrown as “didn’t do things like randomly declare your brother’s new best friend as your future Disney Prince anymore”), she had been incredibly mortified by past teeny Pidge’s actions.

Which current Pidge only remembers because Matt liked to say things like  _ Haha, hey, hey Pidge, do you remember that one time when you called Shiro a Disney Prince? _ and basically never let her live it down.

And of course, this story would come to memory when she is outside of a Starbucks and watching her vanilla frappuccino (because sometimes you just gotta have sweet and cold stuff) slowly start to stain someone’s business suit.

And to add insult to injury (well, her injuring him, sort of), when she manages to tear her gaze away from the expensive damage taking place in order to stammer apologies, she finds the unamused face of Takashi fucking Shirogane. The man who, when he sees her see him, immediately puts on his Disney Prince  _ This Is Okay, It’s Something Minor _ Patented Sparkly Smile.

“I am so fucking sorry,” says Pidge with more than mild horror, and also hopes that he doesn’t recognize her because the last time he’d seen her, she had been a mini-Matt. Aka, five years ago, and before the decision that she felt like growing out her hair again.

Plus, today had been a Nice Clothes day considering she was Dressed Up For A Meeting. (so Pidge is very grateful that even though she had spilled her drink, it hadn’t been on herself)

Today, she looks  _ very _ different from the mini-Matt of yore who exclusively wore high collared sweaters and cargo pants.

However, what she discovers about five seconds later is that Shiro apparently has the memory of an elephant and facial recognition of something very impressive, because he takes one look at her and the Disney Prince smile turns into something more  _ genuinely  _ sparkly.

“Katie!” he exclaims.

“Pidge,” she corrects. Her free hand curls into the hem of her shirt and suit jacket. “I like Pidge better now.”

There is the standard awkward blink of social go or social no before Pidge bulldozes onward because she’s already turned this into a mess. 

“Okay, so. Can I pay for your dry cleaning and call this even?”

There is a moment of silence as Shiro looks at her, completely stupefied. Then, “There’s no need. I’ll cover it myself.”

“What,” she says flatly, because— _ this is not how it goes. _ If she’s the one who spills the coffee (and maybe even ruins the suit in the process because vanilla fraps are not kind to black), she should be the one paying for it. Then again, she reflects, this is Shiro. From what she’s heard from Matt, this is not a stubbornness battle that she can win with the resources she has on hand.

So, of course, she takes a different way.

“I still want to make it up to you somehow so you should come over to my house for dinner,” she blurts out, and he makes a sound that vaguely reminds her of Lance after he had discovered her as a female after a month of being roommates. (to be fair to him, they had spent three weeks of that month never co-existing in the same place)

“It’s really not nec—”

“It really is,” she says firmly, and just as firmly ignores the Matt cackling in the back of her head because  _ Pidge you just strongarmed Shiro into dinner. _

_ Yes, _ she grimly tells her inner Matt,  _ yes I did oh shit. _

“Alright,” she squeaks, because  _ there’s _ the sudden realization of what this situation even is. “I’ll get Matt to tell you when you should come over.”

And, because Pidge isn’t a fool (though today it feels like the evidence is pointing to the contrary), she hightails it out of there like there’s blackmail nipping at her heels.

(which...once she tells Matt, there kinda is. Or at least eternal embarrassment)

Pidge groans.

* * *

Her foot is tapping on the floor. Her foot has been tapping for the last five minutes, and it isn’t going to stop anytime soon because—

Another peal of laughter emits from the phone, and Pidge scrunches her nose and her eyes and her face in general at it. “Matt, you’ve literally been laughing for the past five minutes.”

The laughter halts for a brief moment, and Pidge can clearly see what Matt is doing in her head, even though she can’t physically see him. He’d be holding up his finger, motioning for her to wait as he caught his breath, holding a hand against his stomach and sucking the air in so he doesn’t continue laughing and then—

The laughter restarts.

_ Ah, _ she thinks, somewhat detached but mostly annoyed.  _ There’s the failure. _

“ _ Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaatt,” _ she whines, and Matt’s laughter slowly dies out in the way that means that it’ll actually last, though short bursts will probably make themselves known. 

_ “Piiiiiiiiiiiiiiidge,” _ he whines back, and she huffs into the speaker just to make the staticy breath sound that he hates. “Alright, alright, I’ll stop. So, when do you want Shiro over for dinner?”

Pidge opens her mouth to answer, closes it, opens it again—

“I haven’t thought that far ahead yet.”

Matt’s quiet giggles are somehow worse than the snorting hyena laughter of before. “He has Wednesdays off. Sound good to you?”

“Never sounds good to me, but Wednesday is okay for second place.”

“You’re the one who invited him.”

“I’ve made impulsive decisions before,” she grumbles, and  _ really _ hopes he doesn’t take that opening to pull out the receipts.

Instead, Matt’s voice goes soft and amused in the same moment, the one he uses when her hackles are raised and he’s calm enough to smooth them back down. “It’s going to be fine. Shiro’s a nice guy, and you’re not a bad cook. Dad taught you how, and rooming with Hunk only helped, didn’t it?”

He’s being  _ reasonable, _ she realizes, and scowls even while being thankful. “Yeeeeees.”

“Your date will be fine,” he assures, and then hangs up on her.

It is two seconds after that where Pidge is left spluttering to the phone, because  _ no it isn’t, that’s not _ —

She resolves to throw a pillow or something at his face when she next sees him. And then focuses on what she’s gonna make on Wednesday.

* * *

Wednesday comes too soon, and Pidge might be dying a little bit.

“Are you sure you don’t want a second pair of hands?” asks Hunk for the third time, and Pidge bites down on the urge to say yes.

“No,” she says instead, because she is stubborn to a fault, even though she put the pizza dough in the bread maker only half an hour before Shiro’s scheduled to appear and she still has to prepare the toppings and then actually put the toppings on the pizza except the dough won’t be ready until an hour after Shiro appears because Pidge zoned out while coding and—

The doorbell rings. Her eyes dart to the fridge magnet with the digital clock.

“Oh no,” she says, with slowly mounting horror. “He’s  _ early. _ ”

Hunk pats her shoulder gently, and Pidge still wilts under it. “I’ll get the door,” he tells her, and moves to do just that.

“Uh, does Pidge Holt live here?” she hears Shiro ask, and right, there would be confusion considering Pidge is holed up in the kitchen and Hunk is...not Pidge, to say the least. And has never met Shiro.

“Yeah!” she calls, and narrowly avoids slicing off the tip of her finger. Hunk can deal with the rest of the social niceties for now, she decides. Hunk is actually  _ good _ at that, while Pidge is not the best at multitasking.

So, she focuses on chopping mushrooms (and maybe with a bit more force than usual) until she hears the door close and there is a Shiro right next to her.

“Hi,” she says, but doesn’t look up because she’s still chopping mushrooms.

“Hey,” he says back, and then starts opening drawers. This, understandably, makes Pidge raise her eyebrows.

“What are you looking for?”

“Knives.” He smiles at her, and then actually finds the knife drawer when she points it out unthinkingly. “Matt has trained me in the ways of chopping pizza toppings.”

And then he goes to very neatly cut the ham, which, okay, he is doing pretty well. But, there are sensibilities about hospitality and just  _ things _ that are telling her that she shouldn’t be letting a guest help her out with the food she’s serving, but then again, this is Takashi Shirogane, whom she proposed to when she was a toddler and while they’ve never been particularly  _ close, _ he had been a frequent visitor back when Matt and Pidge actually lived with their parents.

And what would he do anyway, considering how late she had started actually making food, despite Matt reminding her ten different times that  _ you had decided on 7:30pm Pidge.  _ Just sit on the couch awkwardly while she prepped stuff? That wouldn’t be enjoyable for either of them.

(something she won’t admit: being in the kitchen with someone actually feels nice, in a  _ this is kinda relaxing and I haven’t done it for a while _ way)

So, instead, Pidge continues slicing mushrooms as Shiro starts to hum.

(maybe she’s smiling)

(so what?)

(it’s pretty nice)

* * *

An hour and fifteen minutes later, the pizza dough is done and Shiro is swiping cheese to snack on. She doesn’t notice the first few times he does it since she’s intent on checking that she has everything ready (which she does), spreading the tomato sauce around on sufficiently thick crust (which she does), and setting up Hunk and Lance’s mini-pizzas because she promised.

When she finally does notice, it’s when she’s setting up her own pizza and goes to grab a handful of mozzarella except she encounters unexpected resistance. Pidge turns her head, finds Shiro pinching a sizable amount of mozzarella between his fingers, sees the amount of cheese be considerably less than they’re supposed to be at this point—

And laughs.

He smiles sheepishly in response, rolls his shoulders in something that seems like a shrug.

“Can’t wait until we manage to finish?” she asks wryly.

Shiro’s “No” is impressively cheeky, and Pidge doesn’t bother to hold back a second bark of laughter. Things like this are probably why he and Matt get along so well. And then she notices him reaching for the mozzarella again, so she deflects it Hunk-style; that is, batting his hand away.

“Wanna put on a movie?” she prods, still squinting suspiciously at his hands.

Shiro grins at her, arms raised in surrender and walking over to the TV. “Sure.”

Idly, she wonders which movie it is, right up until she sees the beginning of Atlantis roll up onto the screen.  _ Yes! _ she thinks, and only avoids fistpumping because she’s in the middle of making pizza.

“Are you alright without singing?” he asks, and she only realizes he’s teasing when she sees the mischievous glint in her eyes. Pidge, as an incredibly mature and responsible Adult TM , responds to this by sticking out her tongue.

“I’ll survive.”

* * *

It’s two hours after that when Shiro’s pizza is packaged in a container, and Pidge is seeing him off. Her fingers are curled around the hem of her shirt, and she’s left looking up at him as he steps through the open doorway.

“This was a lot of fun,” he tells her, smile soft and voice softer. “Thanks.”

And maybe some heat rises to her cheeks, and maybe Pidge ducks her head to hide a smile (because it’s not like he can see it from up there anyway, being so damn tall when she’s so damn short), but the maybes don’t really matter when he’s right.

This dinner/impromptu movie night  _ was _ a lot of fun. Pidge is...still pretty sheepish about doing the verbal equivalent of dragging him over here without a thought, but it was fun.

(and she’s pretty glad that he liked it too)

“No problem,” she answers, and then he starts to shut the door, and Pidge makes the stupid impulsive decision of grabbing the door right before it’s about to snap shut and nearly jamming her fingers in the process. ( _ Katie, _ sighs her Inner Mom, and Pidge just chooses to be grateful that she managed to not actually hurt her fingers)

She pulls the door open to Shiro’s startled face and blurts out, “This would be nice to do again, you know, if you wanna!”

The shock had smoothed his features out, and now Pidge just...watches as the lines of his face crease, his lips curve the slightest bit up, his eyes crinkle at the edges, and it’s nice. It’s really really nice.

“Yeah,” he says, and his voice is almost as soft as his smile, in a way that sends fuzzy sparks to her fingers and heart. “I’d love that.”

“Great!” She thinks maybe that her heart springs up into her throat, or maybe her lungs, or just  _ something. _ “Great! That’s great!” He laughs at her then, something between a chuckle and a snicker, and her cheeks don’t heat up even though she thinks they probably should at this point.

“I’ll call you for the next one?” he asks, and Pidge blinks.

“You’ll get my number through Matt?” And, that’s what she expects because, you know, that’s what  _ she  _ did.

“How about I get it through you instead?” he says with an eyebrow waggle. An  _ eyebrow waggle. _

Pidge makes a sound that’s probably the unholy child of choking, coughing, and cackling, and grabs a pen in order to write it down. Then, she contemplates getting a piece of paper, except she gives into her inner gremlin instead, rolls down Shiro’s left sleeve, and promptly defaces his arm with her phone number.

“I have no idea how washable this is, so better on skin than the metal arm,” she says when he looks at her with just a little bit of incredulousness.

He splutters at her, and that’s what Pidge ends up shutting the door to with a smirk.

Five minutes later, her phone buzzes in her back pocket, and she swipes it open to see  _ how about i host next wed _ .

_ ye _ , she sends back, and life is good.

Life is really, really good.

* * *

It’s a few years later, when her husband is whirling her around the dance floor with surprising enthusiasm (because Shiro always claimed that he had two left feet, which is a dirty lie) that Pidge is thinking about her happy ending, and, well.

It’s not really like that? The movies had always put that the princess and the prince got married and lived happily ever after, and Pidge  _ knows _ they’re not gonna be like that because they’re not a prince and a princess (even though Shiro’s singing could probably belong in a Disney movie).

They’re them, and they’ve got a whole lot more happy than the Disney movies had taught her to think of.

So Pidge takes the opportunity to laugh, and spin around, and then dip Shiro just because she  _ can _ —

—and kisses him hard through the smiles on their faces while their friends and families whoop in the background.

They haven’t reached their happy ending yet. They’ve just got another happy beginning.

And Pidge can’t  _ wait _ for what comes next.

But for now, she kisses her newly wed husband and enjoys the moment.


End file.
